Matthew Marks Gallery

Specimen Rocks is the title Ken Price gave to a group of works from 1983 and 1984. Gem-like and proportioned to the human hand, they are among the smallest sculptures he would make. At the same time, their looming forms and coarse textures evoke immense geologic formations, a contradiction Price referred to as “the window of fantasy.”

This small book, hand sewn with a pamphlet-stitch binding, documents the Specimen Rocks with full-color plates depicting twelve works at 1:1 scale. Accompanying them is a selection of related quotes by Ken Price.